Beyond the Ball

Marybeth Nugent was promoted to head women's basketball coach of the Buffalo State women's program prior to the 2018-19 season after spending three seasons as the lead assistant under Kevin Clifford who departed for the same position at Division II Roberts Wesleyan.

Nugent guided the Bengals back to the playoffs in 2019-20 and mentored the program's first All-American since 2012 in Liv LeBaron who earned honorable mention honors and became the program's second leading scorer all-time despite playing just three seasons.

Nugent is a 2011 graduate of Daemen College, where she was also an integral part of the women's basketball program. She started all 124 games of her career and holds the record for single game assists and single game three-point percentage. She was also a member of the 2010-11 NAIA National TNT "Sweet 16" team and was inducted into the Daemen Athletic Hall of Fame.

Prior to Buffalo State, Nugent was the junior varsity women's basketball coach at Williamsville South and has also coached AAU. 

The Springville, N.Y. native earned a bachelor's degree from Daemen in health career studies.

Coach Nugent! Thank you so much for joining the pod. Coach's passion and intentionality of bringing the Bengals back to dominance was a joy to her. A product of the 716, she is doing it right!

Brent Tipton resides on the beautiful island of Guam in the South Pacific and is the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at The University of Guam and the Head Coach of Guam’s U16 Men’s National Basketball Team.

Coach Tipton is currently navigating a brand new basketball program at The University of Guam. The 2016-2017 season was the first year in existence for the UoG Tritons. The team was then composed of no scholarship players and finished the season 3-28. The program has made a complete turn around in the 2017-2018 season as Tipton was able to sign the first ever-recruiting class for UoG with players coming from Guam and the mainland United States. In 2017 the UoG Tritons went undefeated in the Guam Basketball League, winning the championship with a 20-0 record.

Coach Tipton graduated from Northland International University in 2008 with a B.S. in Physical Education. While at NIU he played basketball 3 years for the Pioneers, helping them win the Midwest Regional Championship and a birth in the NCCAA National Tournament his junior season. 

Coach, thank you so much for coming on the podcast!!! In addition to taking our show world wide, you gave our listeners so much insight to coaching. We appreciate you coach!

Twitter - @coachbtipton

Coach Seth Kindig joins the pod as a transformational leader at Providence Christian Academy in Lilburn, Georgia. He is the Director of Girls Basketball, Lead Teacher, and the Dean of Students. He shared with us some ways to connect with athletes, his passion for sharing the game, and his unique path off the court in meeting his wife, and how home ultimately came calling. Coach, we truly appreciate your time and your efforts to share the game and your journey. We were blessed to have you on. Give Coach Kindig a follow on Social Media. We hope you enjoy the episode.

Twitter - @SethKindig

Blair Estarfaa is in his second season as a member of the women's basketball coaching staff at the University of Buffalo. He was promoted to assistant coach in June after serving as the team's Director of Basketball Operations during the 2019-20 season.

Estarfaa came to Buffalo after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at Daemen College. Prior to coming to Daeman, Blair was an assistant coach at Alfred University in 2016-17.

He is a graduate of SUNY Cortland and three-year member of the men's basketball team. He captained the 2015-16 team to a 21-8 record and a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) title. He earned first team All-SUNYAC honors and second-team all-district honors as a senior after averaging a team-high 15.4 points. Estarfaa was a standout at Maryvale High School in Cheektowaga, N.Y. As a senior he averaged 25 points a game and collected fifth-team Class A all-state honors. He was also named second-team All-Western New York and ECIC III Player of the Year following his senior year.

"It is an honor to be joining such a talented group of student-athletes and coaches and it's a blessing to represent the city of Buffalo," said Estarfaa. "I look forward to the journey ahead. Go Bulls!"

Coach Estarfaa is an up and coming star in the coaching profession. Thank you coach for your time and insights!!!!

Mike Blaine, who owns a 92-72 career record in six years as a head coach, joins Eric and Justin on this episode of Beyond the Ball.

As head coach of Plattsburgh State, they finished just one game back of State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament qualification in his first season. He guided the Cardinals to an 8-17 overall (5-13 SUNYAC) mark.

Prior to arriving at Plattsburgh State, Blaine served as the head coach at Medaille College for five seasons. Medaille won two Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) championships under Blaine's direction, including most recently in 2016-17 when he earned AMCC Coach of the Year honors. He posted an 84-55 record (63-27 AMCC) during his time at Medaille and qualified for the AMCC Tournament every year. Blaine's Mavericks made two NCAA Division III Tournament appearances during his time in Buffalo.

In addition to his coaching duties at Medaille, he served as the AMCC's representative on the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Advisory Committee for men's basketball from 2016-18 and oversaw the department's NCAA compliance and student services.

Prior to Medaille, Blaine worked as an assistant coach at Division I Cornell University of the Ivy League from 2010-14 on head coach Bill Courtney's staff. He served as the program's primary admissions, alumni relations and game scheduling liaison and managed recruiting efforts in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions of the United States.

Blaine also coached for two seasons as an assistant at Division I University of Maryland Eastern Shore, one season as an assistant at Division III Hampden-Sydney College, one season as an assistant at Division I Radford University, two seasons as the director of basketball operations at Division I Army West Point and one season as the director of basketball operations at Division I James Madison University.

Coach Blaine discusses his journey, some of the challenges of recruiting during covid, and how he believes you have to coach who you are. Coach Blaine, we truly appreciate you coming on the pod!!!!

Twitter

@CoachMikeBlaine  

@Cardinals_MBB

Desmond Randall, a 2010 graduate of the University of Maine, is the Villa Maria College Viking men’s basketball coach.

Coach Randall’s experience goes back to 2011 when he started as a head coach for the Upstate Basketball AAU 12U and 13U teams. In 2012, he joined the West Seneca High Staff as an assistant coach for varsity football and assistant coach for the JV basketball team. In 2013 Randall became an assistant varsity coach at Canisius High School where he helped lead them to a Federation title in 2014. 

In 2015, Randall was hired as the head coach for Bishop Timon Varsity basketball and after going 13-12 his first year, the team won the Monsignor Martin Title (12-1) and finished 18-7 in his second year. In 2017, he stepped down at Timon and took over at his Alma Mater, West Seneca High School. He coached them to a 24-0 record, 12-0 ECIC 1 Champs, Section 6 Class A1 Champs and Section 6 overall champs before becoming far west regional runner up and finishing 24-1 overall. In 2018, the West Seneca team repeated as section class A 1 Champs. 

Coach Randall also coaches for the Corey Graham Elite AAU 16U-17U Elite Travel Team. 

In addition to coaching, Randall has been a part of a variety of camps. He started with the University of Maine Youth Basketball camps in 2009 and 2010. He continued his work at the Medaille College Youth and University at Buffalo Youth basketball camps in 2013. From 2015-2018 Randall was a part of the Daemen College Youth basketball camps.  

Coach Randall brought so much insight and wisdom to the podcast, as he discussed his journey to coaching basketball, adversity that shaped his perspective, and a passion that has fueled his pursuit to coach at the highest levels of the game. We appreciate you Coach! Enjoy the episode!

Twitter

@CoachRandall5  

@VillaMariaMBB  

Coach Donaldson is in his fifth season as the head coach at Heidelberg and his seventeenth overall. Scott has served in multiple positions in his time, starting as a graduate assistant and then working his way to the top spot. Self admittedly, Coach dove right into coaching and was short on experience, but continued to strive to get better, and with the help of some great mentors that helped mold him, now continues to make the most of his opportunity. Like many coaches we have talked to he finds the right flow between home life and work life and gives some advice on how to continue to find that flow at home with his wife and two kids. 

Coach we truly appreciate that you took the time to talk with you!

Twitter

@Coach_Donaldson

Del Reid is the owner of 26 Shirts and Co-Founder of BillsMafia. Del joins the podcast to discuss his love of sport and how he has used that to influence the Buffalo Community and even further with the start of "26 Shirts". He dives into some Bills talk and gives a little behind the scene insight to the start of #Billsmafia

26 Shirts sells different limited edition sports-themed t-shirts every two weeks. After a shirt's respective two week run is over, the design is retired and never sold again. 26 Shirts is currently operating in Buffalo, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.

For every shirt sold, a donation is made to a specified family in need or charitable organization. The primary focus is needs associated with health/medical concerns, or unexpected family emergencies.

Del continues to use his platform to help those in need. Del we appreciate you coming on the pod, it was a truly enjoyable experience. GoBills!

Twitter - @DelReid  @26shirts

Website - https://26shirts.com/

#billsmafia

Sean Strickland is the associate head coach of the Muskingum women's basketball program.  Strickland was previously at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. In his seven years as the leader of the men's program, Strickland coached 12 All-AMCC performers, including an AMCC Conference Player of the Year and an AMCC Newcomer of the Year. Off the court, his Bobcats earned 22 AMCC Academic All-Conference Team awards and attained the highest team GPA in men's basketball program history. Strickland also coached seven of the 12 1,000-point scorers in school history. Strickland's 2015-16 team is the most decorated team in the history of the Pitt-Greensburg Men's basketball program.

Strickland's college coaching career started at Baldwin Wallace University where he served as the top assistant women's basketball coach and head women's golf coach. Strickland was a member of the men's basketball team at Penn State Beaver from 1989-91. He scored over 1,000 points in his two seasons at PSB. 

Strickland owns Strick Hoops, LLC which runs camps, clinics, and does skills training for players in the area.  It was great having Sean on to give insight on finding balance, getting recruited, and talking wings!!! Coach we appreciate you!!!

Twitter - @Coach__Strick

Jamie Quarles is in his fourth season on the UB men's basketball coaching staff. Quarles was a long-time assistant coach at Augusta University where he was most recently named one of the Top 10 Young Professionals To Watch by Augusta Magazine.

Last season, Quarles helped lead the Bulls to a 20-12 record, overseeing the Buffalo offense, which ranked amongst the tops in the MId-American Conference. As the primary guards coach, Quarles also coached Ronaldo Segu, who was named the MAC Sixth Man of the Year and Davonta Jordan, who was named the MAC Defensive Player of the Year. Junior guard Jayvon Graves was named a first-team All-MAC selection.

Coach Q dropped some knowledge on his journey from his playing days to his current role at the University of Buffalo. He discusses ways he finds rhythm between his coaching life and his personal life and interestingly enough some of his connections to local WNY athletes. Coach Q, we appreciate you!!!!  

Twitter: @UBCoachJ